What is Osteopathy?
Definition Osteopathy is a system and philosophy of health care that separated from traditional (allopathic) medical practice about a century ago. It places emphasis on the musculoskeletal system, hence the name–osteo refers to bone and path refers to disease. Osteopaths also believe strongly in the healing power of the body and do their best to facilitate that strength. During this century, the disciplines of osteopathy and allopathic medicine have been converging. Purpose Osteopathy shares many of the same goals as traditional medicine, but places greater emphasis on the relationship between the organs and the musculoskeletal system as well as on treating the whole individual rather than just the disease. Precautions Pain is the chief reason patients seek musculoskeletal treatment. Pain is a symptom, not a disease by itself. Of critical importance is first to determine the cause of the pain. Cancers, brain or spinal cord disease, and many other causes may be lying beneath this sympt
Many forms of natural medicine have been floating around in the ears of the public lately, like Ayurvedic practices, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Herbalism, and chiropractics, but one form has yet to pop up as a popular topic of conversation: Osteopathy. Osteopathy is a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) that focuses on the patient and emphasizes the role of the musculoskeletal system—the bones, muscles, cartilage, ligaments, and joints that provide the movement, support, and stability for the human body—for staying healthy. This alternative healthcare approach offers a holistic approach to medicine by relying on the body’s own restorative powers through manipulation of the muscular structure. Like a general practitioner in Western medicine, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO’s) are fully licensed physicians and can also be surgeons, depending on their amount of education. Founded by Civil War surgeon Dr. Andrew Still, he thought the best way to fight disease
Osteopathy is a form of holistic medicine that focuses on restoring and maintaining physical well being. Through the use of non-invasive, manual techniques that manipulate the body’s musculoskeletal framework, osteopathic treatments aim to support the nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems in order to correct imbalances that are believed to diminish the body’s ability to heal itself are at the root cause of discomfort, disease and illness. Despite its name, which essentially means sick bones, osteopathy doesn’t focus solely on bone health. Based on the belief that a healthy body is capable of healing and defending itself against infections and toxins, osteopathy seeks to correct any misalignment of bones, muscles, ligaments or tissues that compromise this self-healing ability. The theory is simple: in for the body to remain in good health, all parts of your body must function together properly and harmoniously. If one part of your body is restricted, the remainder of body compensat
Top Osteopathy is a British primary healthcare profession that helps many patients suffering with pain and other disorders of their body. The definition of the word ‘osteopathy’ confuses many people as they think it means “bone-disease”. In reality, ‘osteopathy’ is “the diagnosis and treatment of structural and functional (neuro-musculo-skeletal) disorders of the human body”. This means that a specialist Osteopath will look to diagnose the neuro-musculo-skeletal causes of your problem and then attempt to correct them by using any of a number of osteopathic manipulative techniques. The body is then able to repair itself naturally over the following hours, days and weeks. When seeing a specialist GOsC Osteopath, it is usual for a patient to remove some of their clothing during an osteopathic consultation so that a thorough examination and subsequent treatment can be undertaken. If you are not comfortable with this, we can work around it, but it will make it more difficult. Take a look th
Osteopathy is a form of drug-free non-invasive manual medicine that focuses on total body health by treating and strengthening the musculoskeletal framework, which includes the joints, muscles and spine. Its aim is to positively affect the body’s nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems. This therapy is a unique holistic (whole body) approach to health care. Osteopaths do not simply concentrate on treating the problem area, but use manual techniques to balance all the systems of the body, to provide overall good health and wellbeing. Dr. Andrew Taylor Still established the practice of Osteopathy in the late 1800s in the United States of America, with the aim of using manual ‘hands on’ techniques to improve circulation and correct altered biomechanics, without the use of drugs. Osteopathy established itself in Australia in the early 1940s, and there are currently over 1100 Osteopaths practicing across the country. The Australian Osteopathic Association (AOA) is the professional peak b
